Leadership Styles - "Lord Of The Flies".

Essay by EnglishNutHigh School, 11th gradeA, December 2005

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"Leadership has a harder job to do than just choose sides. It must bring sides together." - Jesse Jackson. A leader must consider the opinions and thoughts of all people in order to create unity and understanding. An effective leader will not only instruct what needs to be done, but they will also put forth equal effort in completing the necessary jobs and duties. Some leaders may be more effective in certain situations, which can cause conflict, as they might not know what is in the best interest of the group. A leader can help to develop others by helping them to achieve their goals. Alternatively, a leader could set the standard of performance by leading the group by example. Leaders may also demonstrate control but also include the rest of the group in decisions. In the "Lord Of The Flies", the main characters demonstrate different approaches of leading the rest of the boys, which causes conflict among them.

William Golding's novel, Lord Of The Flies, explores three main leadership styles, including pace setting, coaching, and authoritative.

The first leadership style shown in "Lord Of The Flies" is pace setting. A pace setting leader will set the standard of performance and lead by example. Golding explores this leadership style through the character of Ralph. Ralph is seen as a pace setting leader when he decides that they need to find out whether they are on an island or not. Instead of merely instructing other boys to search the island, he includes himself in the plan as well as Simon and Jack. This pace setting characteristic can be seen in the following statement.

"...If this isn't an island we might be rescued straight away. So we've got to decide if this is an island... three of us will go on...